AP Photo/Mark Zaleski
Urban Meyer didn’t even make it one season as a head coach in the NFL, and he called the constant losing with the Jacksonville Jaguars the “worst experience” of his professional career.
Meyer, who was fired after a 2-11 start to the 2021 campaign, made an appearance on OutKick’s Don’t @ Me With Dan Dakich (h/t Steve Gardner of USA Today) and discussed his brief tenure with the Jaguars.
“It was the worst experience I’ve had in my professional lifetime,” he said. “What really got me, I almost don’t want to say people accept it, I mean, you lose a game, and you just keep…I would seriously have self-talk. … It eats away at your soul.”
The 2-11 record stands in stark contrast to his collegiate career that included head coaching stops at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. He went 187-32 overall with three national championships as one of the best coaches in college football history.
In fact, he lost a grand total of nine times in seven seasons with the Buckeyes.
Yet Meyer made headlines for more than just his losing with the Jaguars.
Shortly before Meyer was fired, former kicker Josh Lambo told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times the head coach kicked him and cursed at him while he was warming up:
Jonathan Jones @jjones9
Former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo tells <a href=”https://twitter.com/NFLSTROUD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@NFLSTROUD</a> that Urban Meyer kicked him during an August warmup this preseason <a href=”https://t.co/JoN0UDdVz1″>https://t.co/JoN0UDdVz1</a> <a href=”https://t.co/aqFS4HScCL”>pic.twitter.com/aqFS4HScCL</a>
“You know when you come out and say there was a player kicked. … That’s not true,” Meyer said Monday. “That’s not true at all. To say I didn’t tap him with my foot. … To kick someone? Come on. I’ve done this 37 years. Kick a player? The other players came up to me and said, ‘We saw the whole thing.’ Because I’d mostly forgotten about it.”
The alleged kicking incident became news after Meyer already made headlines when videos of a woman who was not his wife dancing on him at a bar spread across the internet. It happened after he elected to stay in Ohio following a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals instead of flying back with his team.
What’s more, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com reported in December, “months of tension surrounding Jaguars coach Urban Meyer has boiled over with multiple run-ins with players and other coaches.”
That report also included allegations that he “delivered a biting message that he’s a winner and his assistant coaches are losers” while “challenging each coach individually to explain when they’ve ever won and forcing them to defend their resumes.”
From the off-field stories to the on-field lack of success, Meyer’s time with the Jaguars could not have gone much worse.
He clearly recognized that given his comments Monday as he reflected on the differences between his time as an NFL head coach and when he was on the sidelines at the college level.
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